'Stossel' Premiere to Take on Global Warming

President Obama goes to Copenhagen next week, and he is expected to promise to cut carbon emissions 83 percent by 2050.

And John Stossel will have plenty to say about it Thursday night, when his new show, "Stossel," premieres on Fox Business at 8 p.m. EST.

Expect Stossel to weigh in on the utter arrogance of the effort. A promise of 83 percent? Not 80 percent? Not 85 percent? And why do the world's leaders wnat to spend trillions on a theortical problem with millions dying from malnutrition, poor hygiene, and malaria.

On Thursday's show, Stossel talks to Jerry Taylor, an energy analyst at the Cato Institute, who explains that the economic impact of global warming is expected to be fairly minimal. Thirteen published studies have concluded that we may gain or lose about one year of economic growth over the next 100 years.

Four of the studies actually found that global warming would lead to an increase in global GDP. How? Because global warming will bring both negative and positive effects, such as longer growing seasons and open shipping lanes in the Arctic. Plus, more people die from cold snaps than from heat waves.

Taylor argues that poverty is a bigger global problem. The World Health Organization estimates 150,000 people die because of climate change each year, however, 3 million die from malnutrition alone. Malaria often is cited as a problem that will grow worse with a warmer planet, and it is a terrible problem in tropical countries that will worsen with a warmer planet, but tropical countries that are wealthy, like Singapore, don’t have problems with malaria.

Also, John Stossel buys an electric golf cart — and uses your tax dollars to pay for it. Tax credits for electric vehicles have become so large that in some cases they actually cover the full cost of the vehicle.

Stossel buys his golf cart from a dealership run by Colin Riley in Tuscon, Ariz. He checked in with more than 20 dealers in New York State and found almost all were sold out of the carts. No wonder.

But why is Congress so eager to pay for electric vehicles? According to the National Research Council, electric cars emit more harmful pollutants than gas-powered cars, because they rely on the electric grid for power, which is still dominated by fossil-fuels.

"Electric vehicles produced some of the highest non-climate damages in 2005," the council found. "Although they produce no emissions during operation, they rely on electricity powered largely by fossil fuels for their fuel and energy intensive battery manufacturing.”

The best energy policy, Stossel says, is the free market: If an energy source is affordable and makes sense economically, then people will buy it.

Also, Stephen Dubner stops by to discuss his chapter on geo-engineering in his latest book, "SuperFreakonomics" and why the global warming “church” reacted so negatively.

'Stossel' premieres at 8 p.m. EST Thurday on Fox Business. Click here for a preview.